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A comparison of the drivers influencing farmers' adoption of enterprises associated with renewable energy

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  • Tate, Graham
  • Mbzibain, Aurelian
  • Ali, Shaukat

Abstract

A declared target of both the UK government and the European Union is to produce 15% of energy requirements from renewable sources by the year 2020; however the UK is very unlikely to achieve this. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has identified the potential amongst the farming industry to help meet this objective (DEFRA, 2007) but there is little published research on how organisations can successfully interact with farmers to achieve structural change. This paper reports the findings of a postal questionnaire survey of farmers in the West Midlands Region of the UK where principal component analysis revealed that personal, farm business, regulatory and behavioural drivers affected the rate of adoption of renewable energy (RE) enterprises. Of the 393 farmers who responded, 14% had adopted one or more enterprises associated with RE with solar energy production the most popular of the RE technologies available to farmers. The study found that the most influential personal level factors contributing to the adoption of RE and associated technologies were cognitive, such as level of education, but not administrative, such as the attractiveness of government schemes supporting RE and associated enterprises. Adopters also tended to be younger than non-adopters, perhaps reflecting the impact of long investment payback periods typically found with RE enterprises, they were involved with larger and more financially viable businesses that were more likely to trade as limited companies or family partnerships.

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  • Tate, Graham & Mbzibain, Aurelian & Ali, Shaukat, 2012. "A comparison of the drivers influencing farmers' adoption of enterprises associated with renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 400-409.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:400-409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.043
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    3. Ehlers, Melf-Hinrich & Sutherland, Lee-Ann, 2016. "Patterns of attention to renewable energy in the British farming press from 1980 to 2013," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 959-973.
    4. Bergek, Anna & Mignon, Ingrid, 2017. "Motives to adopt renewable electricity technologies: Evidence from Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 547-559.
    5. Bartosz Bartkowski & Stephan Bartke, 2018. "Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-27, September.
    6. Calliope Panoutsou & Efthymia Alexopoulou, 2020. "Costs and Profitability of Crops for Bioeconomy in the EU," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, March.
    7. Ge, Jiaqi & Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Polhill, J. Gary & Matthews, Keith & Miller, Dave & Wardell-Johnson, Douglas, 2017. "Exploring factors affecting on-farm renewable energy adoption in Scotland using large-scale microdata," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 548-560.
    8. Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Peter, Sarah & Zagata, Lukas, 2015. "Conceptualising multi-regime interactions: The role of the agriculture sector in renewable energy transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1543-1554.
    9. Ryszard Kata & Kazimierz Cyran & Sławomir Dybka & Małgorzata Lechwar & Rafał Pitera, 2021. "Economic and Social Aspects of Using Energy from PV and Solar Installations in Farmers’ Households in the Podkarpackie Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-21, May.
    10. Barnes, A.P. & McMillan, J. & Sutherland, L.-A. & Hopkins, J. & Thomson, S.G., 2022. "Farmer intentional pathways for net zero carbon: Exploring the lock-in effects of forestry and renewables," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    11. Barnes, Andrew Peter & Toma, Luiza & Mathews, Keith & Sutherland, Lee-Ann & Thomson, Steven, 2014. "Intensify, diversify, opt-out: testing farmer stated intentions to past and future CAP reform scenarios," 88th Annual Conference, April 9-11, 2014, AgroParisTech, Paris, France 169724, Agricultural Economics Society.
    12. Zografidou, Eleni & Petridis, Konstantinos & Petridis, Nikolaos E. & Arabatzis, Garyfallos, 2017. "A financial approach to renewable energy production in Greece using goal programming," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 37-51.
    13. Cristina Salvioni & Roberto Henke & Francesco Vanni, 2020. "The Impact of Non-Agricultural Diversification on Financial Performance: Evidence from Family Farms in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, January.
    14. Antonella Basso & Maria Bruna Zolin, 2023. "Analyzing the land and labour productivity of farms producing renewable energy: the Italian case study," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 153-172, April.
    15. Wilson, P. & Glithero, N.J. & Ramsden, S.J., 2014. "Prospects for dedicated energy crop production and attitudes towards agricultural straw use: The case of livestock farmers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 101-110.
    16. Fanelli Rosa Maria, 2018. "Rural Small and Medium Enterprises Development in Molise (Italy)," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 10(4), pages 566-589, December.
    17. Julio Pombo-Romero & Hans Langeveld & Marta Fernández-Redondo, 2023. "Diffusion of renewable energy technology on Spanish farms: drivers and barriers," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 11769-11787, October.
    18. María J. Ruiz-Fuensanta & María-Jesús Gutiérrez-Pedrero & Miguel-Ángel Tarancón, 2019. "The Role of Regional Determinants in the Deployment of Renewable Energy in Farms. The Case of Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, October.

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    Keywords

    Adoption; Farmers; RE enterprise;
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